WOW panel

Publicity card for the World Oceans Week Small-Scale Fisheries Open House 2021

REFERENCE: Call for contributions (pdf)

Title: What is the “value” in dried fish value chains? Insights from the Dried Fish Matters Partnership

Session Organizer: Dried Fish Matters Project (Project Director: Derek Johnson, derek.johnson@umanitoba.ca; Project Administrator: Eric Thrift, dried.fish.matters@umanitoba.ca)

Format: Pre-recorded presentation (15 minutes) followed by a panel discussion and audience engagement (45 minutes)

Recording

The recording of the full panel is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebWqYEtFyZs. The pre-recorded elements are shown below.

Summary

For many of the most vulnerable peoples of the South and Southeast Asia region, dried fish is of vital nutritional, economic, social, and cultural importance. Despite this, the diverse and complex economy that produces and distributes dried fish, and the threats to it, are all but invisible in research and policy. The Dried Fish Matters Partnership aims to address this oversight through the work of a transdisciplinary team that brings together more than 50 researchers and collaborators, 14 universities, and 10 governmental and civil society organizations from around the world.

This virtual panel began with am 18-minute pre-recorded presentation of images and commentaries from Dried Fish Matters partners and collaborators, illustrating the diverse forms of value associated with dried fish in South and Southeast Asia.

The DFM Thailand team presented a video entitled "The story of Kapi: 'Ours' is the best!", demonstrating the simple process of preparing kapi – a dark, distinctly flavourful paste made from fermented shrimp – for which many villagers claim to own the "best" recipe.

Tara Nair from the DFM Gujarat team spoke on the economic importance of fish processing in Gujarat, which is one of the major producers of dried fish but an area of relatively low consumption. Tara showed photographs of the recent destruction of Bombay duck drying yards by Cyclone Tauktae, which hit Gujarat in May 2021, causing the loss of thousands of livelihoods in the fish processing sector.

Roktima Ghosh of the DFM West Bengal team presented an overview of the importance of dried fish as an emblem of historical and cultural integrity, a contributor to food and nutrition security, a means of subsistence, an important livelihood source for women, and as a commodity linked to local, national, and international markets. Jenia Mukherjee introduced the "4T mechanism" for framing research on dried fish value chains, encompassing the principles of Transdisciplinarity, Triangulation, Trans-sectorality, and Translocality.

University of Waterloo PhD student Madu Galappaththi presented a two-minute animated introduction to her research on gender in dried fish value chains in Sri Lanka, pointing out that approximately half of labour is done by women, but that women rarely are involved in decision-making.

Mostafa Hossain of the DFM Bangladesh team spoke to the importance of fish drying in Bangladesh, identifying the main sites of marine and inland processing, and highlighting the challenges posed by issues such as poor infrastructure, unhygienic practices, and lack of access to finance.

Gayathri Lokuge of the DFM Cambodia team described the completed research from 2019-2020, focusing on the experiences and practices along Tonle Sap Lake and the marine coast. Diverse groups of processors include multi-generational family processing units, Vietnamese floating villages, and Cham fishing communities along the coast.

The DFM Kerala team presented a short video showing 56 year old Jasmine Xavier, a homemaker from Kochi. As an alternate source of income, her son leased a Chinese dip net during the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdown, in 2020. In the first few days the catch was just sufficient to meet family needs, but as catches began to improve, they also began selling to neighbours. Prawns caught in the net were sun-dried and stored for family use.

The DFM Sri Lanka team presented an anonymous Sinhalese folk song that references the smell of dried fish – "Is it not bad to go to Negombo in the moon light and engage in trading? / Dear friend! I cannot bear the odour of dried fish / I would not wish to return to Negombo" – accompanied by text and images from Negombo in the late 19th Century and today. The distinctive identity conferred upon Negombo, as the dried fish hub of Sri Lanka, appears to have been its smell, even while approaching it under the glow of moonlight.

The introductory presentation was followed by a panel discussion involving researchers from four countries. Panelists explored the question: how might we better describe, support, and promote diverse forms of “value” in dried fish value chains?